Saturday, June 21, 2008

Israel's Formaldehyde Test over Mediterranean?

In March Israel grounded all of its F-16 fighter jets due to formaldehyde levels found in one cockpit. At the time it seemed an obvious ruse to conduct wholesale maintenance before launching a pre-emtive attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. But no longer coy, the Middle East's leading democracy staged a huge military exercise in the Mediterranean to send such a message. The Jerusalem Postreported:

More than 100 IAF F-16 and F-15 fighter jets took part in the exercise, which was carried out over the eastern Mediterranean and over Greece, the officials quoted by the New York Times said. The drill also included IAF rescues helicopters, continued the officials, adding that the helicopters and refueling tankers flew more than 900 miles, which is approximately the distance between Israel and Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Natanz.

The IDF would neither confirm nor deny the report. The army issued a statement saying only that the IAF "regularly trains for variousmissions in order to confront and meet the challenges posed by the threats facing Israel."

I'd hoped the reason had been to test the air inside those F-16 cockpits. Instead they want more corpses, which happen to use formaldehyde. Eerie coincidence?